Language among Animals

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 19, 1873

Language among Animals.

M. Houzeau maintains that not only does each group of animals possess a language which is understood by other members of the same group, but that they can learn to understand the language of other groups. His dogs, for instance, perfectly understood his poultry. Cocks and hens have one danger signal for the approach of a bird of prey, another for that of a terrestrial animal or for a man. When the latter was sounded, the dogs would rush out and bark, while to the former they paid no attention whatever. He therefore concludes that fowls have the power of expressing slightly different but closely allied ideas, and dogs can learn to understand these differences.—Scribner’s for February.